I am a CINSW Research Fellow and a Senior Scientist at Melanoma Institute Australia and The University of Sydney. I lead a program of translational science focusing on making discoveries that enable innovative treatment strategies and biomarker development for patients with cancer, infectious diseases or neurodegenerative diseases.
List of published projects
Bai X, Attrill GH, Gide TN, Ferguson PM, Nahar KJ, Shang P, Vergara IA, Palendira U, Pires da Silva I, Carlino MS, Menzies AM, Long GV, Scolyer RA, Wilmott JS, Quek C. Stroma-infiltrating T cell spatiotypes define immunotherapy outcomes in adolescent and young adult patients with melanoma. Nature Communications 2024; 8;15(1):3014. PMID: 38589406. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-47301-9
Adegoke N, Gide TN, Mao Y, Quek C, Patrick E, Carlino MS, Lo SE, Menzies AM, Pires da Silva I, Vergara IA, Long GV, Scolyer RA, and Wilmott JS. Classification of the tumour immune microenvironment and associations with outcomes in patients with metastatic melanoma treated with immunotherapies. Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer 2023.
Manolios N, Pham S, Hou G, Du J, Quek C, Hibbs D. Non-Antigenic Modulation of Antigen Receptor (TCR) Cβ-FG Loop Modulates Signalling: Implications of External Factors Influencing T-Cell Responses. International Journal of Molecular Sciences. 2023; 24(11):9334. DOI: 10.3390/ijms24119334.
Mao Y, Gide TN, Adegoke NA, Quek C, Maher N, Potter A, Patrick E, Saw RPM, Thompson JF, Spillane AJ, Shannon KF, Carlino MS, Lo SN, Menzies AM, da Silva IP, Long GV, Scolyer RA, Wilmott JS. Cross-platform comparison of immune signatures in immunotherapy-treated patients with advanced melanoma using a rank-based scoring approach. Journal of Translational Medicine 2023; 21(1):257. PMID: 37055772. DOI: 10.1186/s12967-023-04092-9
Quek C. Genetics and Genomics of Melanoma: Current Progress and Future Directions. Genes 2023; (1):232. PMID: 36672973. DOI: 10.3390/genes14010232
Quek C*, Lee H*, Ferguson AL*, Vergara IA, Pires daSilva I, Allen R, Gide TN, Conway JW, Koufariotis LT, Hayward NK, Waddell N, Carlino MS, Menzies AM, Saw RPM, Shklovskaya E, Rizos H, Lo S, Scolyer RA, Long GV, Palendira U, Wilmott JS. Intratumoral CD16+ macrophages are associated with clinical outcomes of patients with metastatic melanoma treated with combination anti-PD-1 and anti-CTLA-4 therapy. Clinical Cancer Research 2023; OF1-2. PMID: 36790412. DOI: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-22-2657
Pham VH, Pham HT, Balzanelli MG, Distratis P, Lazzaro R, Nguyen QV, Tran VQ, Tran DK, Phan LD, Pham SM, Pham BT, Duc CV, Nguyen HM, Nguyen DNT, Tran NV, Pham ST, Quek C, Nguyen KDC, Inchingolo F, Del Prete R, Nguyen NHD, Santacroce L, Gargiulo Isacco C. Multiplex RT Real-Time PCR Based on Target Failure to Detect and Identify Different Variants of SARS-CoV-2: A Feasible Method That Can Be Applied in Clinical Laboratories. Diagnostics 2023;13(8). PMID: 37189465. DOI: 10.3390/diagnostics13081364
Nahar KJ, Marsh-Wakefield F, Rawson RV, Gide TN, Ferguson AL, Allen R, Quek C, da Silva IP, Tattersal S, Kiely CJ, Sandanayake N, Carlino MS, McCaughan G, Wilmott JS, Scolyer RA, Long GV, Menzies AM, Palendira U. Distinct pretreatment innate immune landscape and posttreatment T cell responses underlie immunotherapy-induced colitis. Journal of Clinical Investigation Insight 2022; 8;7(21). PMID: 36173679. DOI: 10.1172/jci.insight.157839
Hahn AW, Menk AV, Rivadeneira DB, Augustin RC, Xu M, Li J, Wu X, Mishra AK, Gide TN, Quek C, Zang Y, Spencer CN, Menzies AM, Daniel CR, Hudgens CW, Nowicki T, Haydu LE, Khan MAW, Gopalakrishnan V, Burton EM, Malke J, Simon JM, Bernatchez C, Putluri N, Woodman SE, Vashisht Gopal YN, Guerrieri R, Fischer GM, Wang J, Wani KM, Thompson JF, Lee JE, Hwu P, Ajami N, Gershenwald JE, Long GV, Scolyer RA, Tetzlaff MT, Lazar AJ, Schadendorf D, Wargo JA, Kirkwood JM, DeBerardinis RJ, Liang H, Futreal A, Zhang J, Wilmott JS, Peng W, Davies MA, Delgoffe GM, Najjar YG, McQuade JL. Obesity is associated with altered tumor metabolism in metastatic melanoma. Clinical Cancer Research 2023; 29(1):154-64. PMID: 36166093. DOI: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-22-2661
Bai X, and Quek C. Unravelling Tumour Microenvironment in Melanoma at Single-Cell Level and Challenges to Checkpoint Immunotherapy. Genes 2022;13(10):1757. PMID: 36292642. DOI: 10.3390/genes13101757
Ho PT, Balzanelli MG, Distratis P, Lazzaro R, Tran DK, Nguyen KCD, Bui TM, Nguyen TT, Pham ST, Nguyen HSD, Tran VT, Ho TT, Dipalma G, Inchingolo F, Quek C, Pham HT, Isacco CG, Santacroce L, Pham VH. Characteristics of Hepatitis B Virus Genotype and Sub-Genotype in Hepatocellular Cancer Patients in Vietnam. Diagnostics 2022;12(10). PMID: 36292082. DOI: 10.3390/diagnostics12102393
Cheng L, Quek C, Li X, Bellingham SA, Ellett LJ, Shambrook M, Zafar S, Zerr I, Lawson VA, Hill AF. Distribution of microRNA profiles in pre-clinical and clinical forms of murine and human prion disease. Communications Biology. 2021 Mar 25;4(1):411. PMID: 33767334. DOI: 10.1038/s42003-021-01868-x
Quek C, Bai X, Long GV, Scolyer RA, Wilmott JS. High-Dimensional Single-Cell Transcriptomics in Melanoma and Cancer Immunotherapy. Genes 2021; Oct;12(10):1629. PMID: 34681023. DOI: 10.3390/genes12101629
Wu SZ, Roden DL, Al-Eryani G, Bartonicek N, Harvey K, Cazet AS, Chan CL, Junankar S, Hui MN, Millar EA, Beretov J, Horvath L, Joshua AM, Stricker P, Wilmott JS, Quek C, Long GV, Scolyer RA, Yeung BZ, Segara D, Mak C, Warrier S, Powell JE, O'Toole S, Lim E, Swarbrick A. Cryopreservation of human cancers conserves tumour heterogeneity for single-cell multi-omics analysis. Genome Medicine 2021; 13(1):81. PMID: 33971952. DOI: 10.1186/s13073-021-00885-z
Pires da Silva I, Lo S, Quek C, Gonzalez M, Carlino MS, Long GV, Menzies AM. Site-specific response patterns, pseudoprogression, and acquired resistance in patients with melanoma treated with ipilimumab combined with anti-PD-1 therapy. Cancer 2020; 126(1):86-97. PMID: 31584722. DOI: 10.1002/cncr.32522
Quek C*, Gide TN*, Menzies AM, Tasker AT, Shang P, Holst J, Madore J, Lim SY, Velickovic R, Wongchenko M, Yan Y, Lo S, Carlino MS, Guminski A, Saw RPM, Pang A, McGuire HM, Palendira U, Thompson JF, Rizos H, Silva IPD, Batten M, Scolyer RA, Long GV, Wilmott JS. Distinct Immune Cell Populations Define Response to Anti-PD-1 Monotherapy and Anti-PD-1/Anti-CTLA-4 Combined Therapy. Cancer Cell 2019; 35(2):238-55 e6. PMID: 30753825. DOI: 10.1016/j.ccell.2019.01.003
Quek C, Rawson RV, Ferguson PM, Shang P, Silva I, Saw RPM, Shannon K, Thompson JF, Hayward NK, Long GV, Mann GJ, Scolyer RA, Wilmott JS. Recurrent hotspot SF3B1 mutations at codon 625 in vulvovaginal mucosal melanoma identified in a study of 27 Australian mucosal melanomas. Oncotarget 2019; 10(9):930-41. PMID: 30847022. DOI: 10.18632/oncotarget.26584
Zhao W, Cheng L, Quek C, Bellingham SA, Hill AF. Novel miR-29b target regulation patterns are revealed in two different cell lines. Scientific reports 2019; 9(1):17449. PMID: 31767948. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-53868-x
House IG, Savas P, Lai J, Chen AXY, Oliver AJ, Teo ZL, Todd KL, Henderson MA, Giuffrida L, Petley EV, Sek K, Mardiana S, Gide TN, Quek C, Scolyer RA, Long GV, Wilmott JS, Loi S, Darcy PK, Beavis PA. Macrophage-Derived CXCL9 and CXCL10 Are Required for Antitumor Immune Responses Following Immune Checkpoint Blockade. Clinical Cancer Research 2020; 26(2):487-504. PMID: 31636098. DOI: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-19-1868
Edwards J, Tasker A, Pires da Silva I, Quek C, Batten M, Ferguson A, Allen R, Allanson B, Saw RPM, Thompson JF, Menzies AM, Palendira U, Wilmott JS, Long GV, Scolyer RA. Prevalence and Cellular Distribution of Novel Immune Checkpoint Targets Across Longitudinal Specimens in Treatment-naive Melanoma Patients: Implications for Clinical Trials. Clinical Cancer Research 2019; 25(11):3247-58. PMID: 30777877 DOI: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-18-4011
Gide TN, Silva IP, Quek C, Ahmed T, Menzies AM, Carlino MS, Saw RPM, Thompson JF, Batten M, Long GV, Scolyer RA, Wilmott JS. Close proximity of immune and tumor cells underlies response to anti-PD-1 based therapies in metastatic melanoma patients. Oncoimmunology 2019; 9(1):1659093. PMID: 32002281. DOI: 10.1080/2162402X.2019.1659093
Wilmott JS, Johansson PA, Newell F, Waddell N, Ferguson P, Quek C, Patch AM, Nones K, Shang P, Pritchard AL, Kazakoff S, Holmes O, Leonard C, Wood S, Xu Q, Saw RPM, Spillane AJ, Stretch JR, Shannon KF, Kefford RF, Menzies AM, Long GV, Thompson JF, Pearson JV, Mann GJ, Hayward NK, Scolyer RA. Whole genome sequencing of melanomas in adolescent and young adults reveals distinct mutation landscapes and the potential role of germline variants in disease susceptibility. International Journal of Cancer 2019;144(5):1049-60. PMID: 30178487. DOI: 10.1002/ijc.31791
Lee H, Quek C, Silva I, Tasker A, Batten M, Rizos H, Lim SY, Nur Gide T, Shang P, Attrill GH, Madore J, Edwards J, Carlino MS, Guminski A, Saw RPM, Thompson JF, Ferguson PM, Palendira U, Menzies AM, Long GV, Scolyer RA, Wilmott JS. Integrated molecular and immunophenotypic analysis of NK cells in anti-PD-1 treated metastatic melanoma patients. Oncoimmunology. 2019;8(2):e1537581PMID: 30713793. DOI: 10.1080/2162402X.2018.1537581
Pires da Silva I, Wang KYX, Wilmott JS, Holst J, Carlino MS, Park JJ, Quek C, Wongchenko M, Yan Y, Mann G, Johnson DB, McQuade JL, Rai R, Kefford RF, Rizos H, Scolyer RA, Yang JYH, Long GV, Menzies AM. Distinct Molecular Profiles and Immunotherapy Treatment Outcomes of V600E and V600K BRAF-Mutant Melanoma. Clinical Cancer Research 2019;25(4):1272-9. PMID: 30630828. DOI: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-18-1680
Zhao X, Little P, Hoyle AP, Pegna GJ, Hayward MC, Ivanova A, Parker JS, Marron DL, Soloway MG, Jo H, Salazar AH, Papakonstantinou MP, Bouchard DM, Jefferys SR, Hoadley KA, Ollila DW, Frank JS, Thomas NE, Googe PB, Ezzell AJ, Collichio FA, Lee CB, Earp HS, Sharpless NE, Hugo W, Wilmott JS, Quek C, Waddell N, Johansson PA, Thompson JF, Hayward NK, Mann GJ, Lo RS, Johnson DB, Scolyer RA, Hayes DN, Moschos SJ. The Prognostic Significance of Low-Frequency Somatic Mutations in Metastatic Cutaneous Melanoma. Frontiers in Oncology 2018; 8: 584. PMID: 30662871. DOI: 10.3389/fonc.2018.00584
Lamoury FMJ, Hajarizadeh B, Soker A, Martinez D, Quek C, Cunningham P, Catlett B, Cloherty G, Marks P, Amin J, Grebely J, Dore GJ, Applegate TL. Evaluation of a Hepatitis C Virus Core Antigen Assay in Plasma and Dried Blood Spot Samples. Journal of Molecular Diagnostics 2018; 20(5): 621-627. PMID: 29959023. DOI: 10.1016/j.jmoldx.2018.05.010
Edwards J, Wilmott JS, Madore J, Gide TN, Quek C, Tasker A, Ferguson A, Chen J, Hewavisenti R, Hersey P, Gebhardt T, Weninger W, Britton WJ, Saw RPM, Thompson JF, Menzies AM, Long GV, Scolyer RA, Palendira U. CD103+ Tumor-Resident CD8+ T Cells Are Associated with Improved Survival in Immunotherapy-Naïve Melanoma Patients and Expand Significantly During Anti–PD-1 Treatment. Clinical Cancer Research. 2018;24(13):3036-45. PMID: 29599411. DOI: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-17-2257
Quek C*, Bellingham SA *, Jung CH, Scicluna B, Shambrook MC, Sharples RA, Cheng L, Hill AF. Defining the purity of exosomes required for diagnostic profiling of small RNA suitable for biomarker discovery. RNA Biology 2017; 14(2): 245-258. PMID: 28005467. DOI: 10.1080/15476286.2016.1270005
Quek C, Hill AF. The role of extracellular vesicles in neurodegenerative diseases. Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications 2017; 483(4): 1178-1186. PMID: 27659705. DOI: 10.1016/j.bbrc.2016.09.090
Quek C, Pham ST, Kieu TB, Pham TT, Luu LBN, Le TKT, Pham VH. H. pylori resistance to antibiotics and clarithromycin: Results from the study on 193 strains isolated from Vietnamese patients with gastro-duodenal ulcer. Vietnamese Journal of Gastroenterology 2016; 9(45):2872.
Quek C, Pham ST, Tran KT, Pham BT, Huynh LV, Luu NBL, Le TKT, Quek K, Pham VH. Antimicrobial susceptibility and clarithromycin resistance patterns of Helicobacter pylori clinical isolates in Vietnam. F1000 Research 2016; 5:671. PMID: 27583131. DOI: 10.12688/f1000research.8239.1
Quek C*, Cheng L*, Hung LW*, Sharples RA, Sherratt NA, Barnham KJ, Hill AF. Gene dysregulation is restored in the Parkinson’s disease MPTP neurotoxic mice model upon treatment of the therapeutic drug CuII(atsm). Scientific Reports 2016; 6:22398. PMID: 26928495. DOI:10.1038/srep22398
Quek C, Jung CH, Bellingham SA, Lonie A, Hill AF. iSRAP – a one-touch research tool for rapid profiling of small RNA-seq data. Journal of Extracellular Vesicles 2015; 4(1):29454. PMID: 26561006. DOI: 10.3402/jev.v4.29454
Pathan M, Keerthikumar S, Ang CS, Gangoda L, Quek C, Williamson NA, Mouradov D, Sieber OM, Simpson RJ, Bacic A, Hill AF, Stroud DA, Ryan MT, Agbinya, JI, Burgess AW, Mathivanan S. FunRich: An open access standalone functional enrichment and interaction network analysis tool. Proteomics 2015; 15(15):2597-2601. PMID: 25921073. DOI: 10.1002/pmic.201400515
Cheng L, Quek C, Sun X, Bellingham SA, Hill AF. The detection of microRNA associated with Alzheimer's disease in biological fluids using next-generation sequencing technologies. Frontiers in Genetics 2013; 4:150. PMID: 23964286. DOI:10.3389/fgene.2013.00150
List of projects presented at the conferences and meetings
2024 Australia Illumination Tour Symposium (Australia, Hybrid - worldwide): Tumour spatial microenvironment and single cell multiomics profiles in immunotherapy-treated melanoma patients across neoadjuvant and metastatic settings. [Invited Speaker]
2024 ORIEN Data Science RIG (USA): Unravelling precision immunotherapy: single cell and multiomics insights in advanced melanoma patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors. [Invited Speaker]
2023 10x-MS Fellowship Forum Symposium (Australia): Single cell spatial multiomics in advanced melanoma patients treated with checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapy. [Invited Speaker]
2023 International Society for Computational Biology ASCS (Virtual, Worldwide): Spatially resolved omics reveal distinct cell microenvironment in melanoma. [Invited Speaker; Best Speaker Award]
2023 International Cancer Conference (UK): Distinct cellular and molecular features of tumour immune microenvironment in melanoma patients with primary and acquired resistance to cancer immunotherapy. [Invited Speaker]
2023 WEHI Spatial Technology Symposium (Australia): CODEX imaging of patients with advanced melanoma. [Invited Speaker]
2023 European Society for Medical Oncology (Spain): Single cell spatial features of in-transit melanoma associated with patient outcome to immunotherapy.
2023 American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting (USA): Distinct cellular and molecular maps in the tumour microenvironment of resistant melanoma patients treated with checkpoint-based immunotherapies.
2023 American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting (USA): Spatial organization of the tumor immune microenvironment (TIME) in primary and metastatic melanoma is associated with patient outcome.
2023 American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting (USA): Predictive biomarker models of immunotherapy response in patients with metastatic melanoma: Genomic, transcriptomic, and immune profiles from the Personalised Immunotherapy Program (PIP).
2023 Australian and New Zealand Society for Immunology Conference (New Zealand): Immunospatial tumour immune microenvironment (isTIME) organisation and B cell aggregates (BCAs) are associated with melanoma recurrence
2022 International Academy of Pathology Conference (Australia): Spatially resolved single-cell features reveal distinct cellular maps in the tumour microenvironment of melanoma patients (pts) with primary and acquired resistance to immunotherapies.
2022 Charles Perkins Centre Single Cell Research Node Symposium (Australia): Integrating single-cell sequencing and spatial features reveals distinct cellular maps in the tumour microenvironment of melanoma patients treated with checkpoint-based immunotherapies. [Invited Speaker]
2021 Society for Melanoma Research Conference (Virtual, Worldwide): Identifying and targeting novel immunosuppressive driver mechanisms in adolescent and young adult (AYA) melanoma patients.
2021 Sydney Cancer Conference (Virtual, Worldwide): Immunosuppressive features in young melanoma patients treated with checkpoint-based immunotherapies.
2021 Sydney Catalyst Research Conference (Australia): Immunosuppressive-driven mechanisms impede response to checkpoint-based immunotherapies in adolescent and young adult melanoma patients.
2021 European Association for Cancer Research Bioinformatics in Cancer (Virtual, Worldwide): Spatially resolved single-cell sequencing reveals unfavourable immune diversity and intratumoural vessels in resistance melanoma patients treated with checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapy.
2020 Sydney Vital Cancer Research Symposium (Australia): Anti-PD-1-based Immunotherapies in Metastatic Melanoma. [Invited Speaker]
2020 Sydney Catalyst Seminar (Australia): Who Will Benefit from Anti-PD-1 Monotherapy versus Combined Anti-PD-1 and Anti-CTLA-4 Immunotherapy in Metastatic Melanoma. [Invited Speaker]
2020 Immuno-Oncology Summit Europe (United Kingdom, Hybrid - worldwide): Anti-PD-1 Monotherapy versus Combined Anti-PD-1 and Anti-CTLA-4 Immunotherapy in Metastatic Melanoma: Who Will Benefit? [Invited Speaker]
